Hopes that dozens of lifeline bus services could be restored in the Bristol region after being axed have been dealt a blow. The boss of the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), which is in charge of transport, says there are a “significant number of hurdles” to propping up loss-making routes by redirecting government cash away from “new and innovative” ideas, such as the controversial Birthday Bus Pass scheme and the dial-a-minibus WESTlink.
Last month the Department for Transport announced it was relaxing the rules on what a major pot of money called the Bus Service Improvement Plan could be spent on. Previously it could not be used to pay for regular timetabled supported services, which are subsidised by local councils because they do not make money for the operators and are often important routes in rural areas.
Weca and North Somerset Council jointly received £105million in BSIP from the Government 15 months ago, and while the change in rules applies only to the revenue – day-to-day – part of the grant, this still totals £57million. But councillors were told at a meeting on Monday, July 3, that saving or restoring buses recently scrapped across the region was far from straightforward and that careful thought was needed before cash was withdrawn from plans already in the pipeline to improve services for passengers in other ways.
